8 Biggest Unsolved Mysteries In The Star Wars Universe
2. Why Do Some Jedi Vanish When They Die, But Others Don’t?
During the course of the Star Wars saga, several Jedi have fallen in battle and there seems to be two possible outcomes of this: their corpse either vanishes a la Obi-Wan under Vader’s fatal lightsaber blow, or it remains to see a cremation ceremony.
The latter fate is what befell Qui-Gon Jinn when he was killed by Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace and, chronologically speaking, Vader would later go out in the same fashion, leaving a body behind for Luke to burn, albeit one that was more machine than man.
The vanishing act was by no means exclusive to Master Kenobi, since it was seen again in Return of the Jedi when Yoda passed on, yet there’s no official explanation for why some fallen Jedi vanish while others remain.
One school of thought on this subject says the disappearing Jedi are becoming one with the Force, but the Force ghosts present at the end of Return of the Jedi’s special edition indicate that all four of the aforementioned deceased were able to do that, not just the ones who vanished into thin air.
Perhaps there will be some kind of explanation for this in The Last Jedi, hopefully one that doesn’t involve Luke Skywalker joining Yoda, Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and his father on the other side.